Shifting gears and changing ways

Football and sport in general have been shifting, profoundly, on an opposite stream of the one politics are aligning.

For decades the national sides were a reflex of the current national identity shouted out by the far right parties, there were well defined borders and commerce and people didn’t have the mobility that the EU brought. The European idea of a free market, an open common space, which has been copycatted by other regions, in America, in Africa, in Asia.

The migration patterns changed and were reinforced, but especially the concept of open borders allowed foreigners to finally settle in and feel truly welcome and part of the host nation, giving their children the pride of belonging to both the ancestry and the present.

Only in the 80’s and 90’s were we able to see African descent represent England, Germany and several other European nations. Foreign born players became more regular and this expanded to the original regions. If, at first, the European took advantage of these migration patterns from former colonies, later we started to verify those countries retrieving the sons, daughters, grandchildren, trained in the European elite, to represent the ancestors’ homes.

Youth has boundaries, however that isn’t preventing young footballers from going abroad, still underage, and chase the dream of becoming professional players.

If FIFA designed a new U17 world tournament with 48 sides and to be hosted annually and not every other year, as it was done until 2025, UEFA still remains in an outdated model, 8 nations’ final, when – as we already proposed and sent to their headquarters – a carved model with divisions and championship year long tournaments, potentially with a regular stage winner and a playoff for the title, giving multiple trophies, per division, per regular stage and for the final playoff.

The 2025 edition gave Albania a debut as host. A year for them to remember, starting the Giro d’Italia and hosting the U17 Men’s Final.

Curiously, this tournament is mirroring, even further, the world today, the globalization in this football plate.

Albanian final roster has basically foreign playing youngsters. The goalkeepers, Raffaele Huli and Daniel Culi, were born and play in Italy, the first having played for both youth sides of Italy and Albania and with Juventus, the latter playing for Ternana.

The right back, Darli Kurti, was born in Tirana but plays in Italy, having changed from Genoa to Virtus Entella last january, the left back, Gecaj, another Italian-born playing in Juventus, Cekrezi wears Torino’s jersey, Nuhaj is with Greek giant Olympiacos youth, Haradani is with German side Rot Weiss Essen, Hallidri is with Hellas Verona and Sylejmani was already called up to Switzerland youth too and plays with Servette.

The midfielders are Llana, who is with Olympiacos, Gjoka, part of PAOK youth system, Ferati, who was born in Sweden and plays for Portuguese team Rio Ave, already tasted senior football with the side’s U23 which plays in the Liga Revelação, a Portuguese U23 reserve tournament, Ramku is with Italian Udinese and the Durmisi twins play for Juventus.

Alen Vukaj is also Italian-born and plays for Internazionale, Myrtaj was born in London and plays for Tottenham, Sheji is the second Torino player in this final squad, Kulla was born in Vllaznia’s town, Shkoder, but represents Italian Sassuolo while Redzepi is playing for German Stuttgart.

Some of them are probably in Albania for the first time and none is playing there, which says a lot.

Contrary to Albania, Germany has a strong youth system and hosts many foreigners. Their squad is composed of three goalies, Trippel from Borussia Monchengladbach, Reiners from Cologne and Eastern German Mobius from Magdeburg.

Vali Fard, centre back from ‘Gladbach also, has Iranian roots, Hawighorst left footed central defender hails from Bayer Leverkusen, Balcanic descendant Pavlic is with Bayern Munich, Sierra Leone’s child Turay is a left side player who represents Schalke 04 U19, Abraha has Ethiopian roots and plays in his hometown Eintracht Frankfurt, whilst Domnic is from Leverkusen but shares Ethiopian roots with Abraha, with Dortmund’s U19 is Kaba, who has Guinean roots, Isbruch plays for Bochum, Göttlicher and Karl for Bayern, Nguefack, who has Cameroon roots is another player already in the U19 level, with Gladbach, Ghanaian child Mensah plays for Leverkusen, Mule is in Stuttgart’s U19 and Nigeria’s descendant Wisdom Mike already shines in Bayern’s U19, Turkish son Guner plays for Gladbach while German-American Staff is with Frankfurt’s U19 alongside Oteng-Mensah, another Ghanaian son, Transilvanian-born Creta plays for Hoffenheim, holding also Romanian citizenship.

It was unthinkable in the 90’s – and anyone who went there or stayed there during those years – to imagine a German side so coloured and diverse but the 21st century brought that and everybody gained with it.

France was one of the first sides to ‘normalize’ the use of African and Caribbean descent, alongside Portugal, so this is regular for the national teams. In the French case, the revolution was the French academies starting to develop youngsters who later go on the represent nations like Morocco, Algeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Tchad, Central African Republic, Tunisia, Niger, Comoros, Seychelles, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin and other African national sides. However, if our plans and developping ideas turn to reality, a new revolution will arrive soon.

Another interesting fact to watch is the level each one is competing. Jourdren, for instance, one of France’s goalie, is already playing for the second side of Racing Lens, the other goalie, Bouyer was engaged by Milan AC to be part of their U23 side, Kyllian Antonio has already debuted in Lens’ first team and is another player with foreign ancestry, as is Legros who plays for Auxerre’s U19 and has DR Congo roots, as well as Malonga and Mbemba, both from PSG U19, Batdebat is another already seen in UEFA Youth League with PSG, Nantes’ left back Raiani has Tunisian ancestry, Boly, also from PSG U19, has Ivory Coast roots, as well as N’Guéssan from ASSE, Munongo is another DR Congo descendant, Coulibaly has Malian, Mutondo has Congolese, Abdoulaye Camara was still born in Conakry, Guinea, Sanah Camara also has Guinean roots, Eymard from ASSE U19 was born in Senegal and Leccese of OM has Italian ancestry, Batola also has Congo descent, Himbert is the only OL representative, Azizi plays for Toulouse U19 and is of Moroccan descent.

England is no different. For years many academies barred foreign youngster from entering, but that has finally changed and the diversity improved the English sides so much, aproaching them from titles, which they started to capture.

The squad is made of Porter and Dowman from Arsenal, Awesu, Nigerian descent goalie from West Ham, Braithwaite, Man City U19 with Jamaica descent, Byfield, Williams-Barnett and Hardy of Tottenham, Simmonds and Howell already plays with Brighton U21, left back Benamar is of Algerian descent and plays for Crystal Palace, Chelsea’s Emenalo was born in the USA and is the son of former Nigeria internacional Michael Emenalo, Ridgeon is of Cingalese descent and plays for Fulham, Page is of Leicester, Burrowes plays for Villa, Gorman, McAidoo and Heskey are other Citizen talents with diverse backgrounds and ethnicities, Ngumoha also has Nigerian ancestry and is playing for Liverpool, Gray plays for Leeds U21 and Gomes Rodríguez was born in Venezuela, already played for youth national sides of Venezuela, Portugal and England and is with Olympique Lyon second team!

Italy also takes the final stage and the squad is comprised of Nava from Juventus and Maran from Modena, under the poll. The defense has Bovio from Inter, De Paoli from Udinese, Pavesi, who already plays for Cremonese Primavera side, left back is born and raised in England, playing for Stoke and named Giani, Mambuku is of DR Congo ancestry, was born in Turin and is with French Stade Reims U19 side, Dauda Amidere is of African-English ancestry and plays for West Brom, Prisco is of Napoli, Baralla plays in Empoli Primavera team, Borasio of Juventus was born in the DR Congo, Comotto plays with Milan Primavera, Steffanoni with Atalanta Primavera, Maccaroni is of AS Roma, Elimoghale is another Nigerian descent player in the Juventus youth ranks, Italian-Brazilian Inácio plays for German team Dortmund U19, Luongo is with Torino, Campaniello is also playing for Empoli Primavera and has Polish ancestry on his mother side, Arena was born in Australia and has already played for the Aussies youth sides, representing Delfino Pescara first team, Zanaga is the third Empoli youngster in this squad.

Contrary to these new days, Eastern European teams still deal with the foreign integration in a more positive way. Czechia is in the last eight and retains the talent, at least in this generation and age.

Kuchar of Banik Ostrava, Kostelny of Zbrojovka Brno and Paar of Slavia Prague are the goalkeepers, the latters already with the U19 sides.

Syrovatka and Vanek, Hradec Kralove, Barcot and Kovar, Slavia Prague, Pech, Sparta Prague, and Capka, Sigma Olomouc, make the back line, all already playing in the U19 sides of their teams.

Skubala and Zajac, Banik Ostrava, Palascak, Slavia Prague U19, Srb, Slavia Prague, Sochurek and Topic, Sparta Prague U19, with also Cizek who moved last Summer from Slavia to German Hoffenheim, and Janega who is with German Mainz 05, make the midfield.

Skrkon is already with the Banik Ostrava U19, Zeman with Dynamo Ceske Budejovice U19, Tomek with Jihlava U19 and Potmesil with Slavia Prague.

Being a country made of two nations, Belgium has a history of welcoming foreigners and its teams have had foreigners for decades, in all FIFA disciplines, but also in basketball, handball, volleyball, athletics.

Brughmans is one of the goalkeepers, already playing for Genk second team, Henrion moved from Standard to Dutch giant Ajax last Summer.

Jonkers is with PSV, Gielen left Genk for Italian great Juventus in 2024, Wins plays for Club Brugge, Darcon and De Kimpe for OH Leuven, Capilla Rivera brings back the centennial connection between these territories and the Spanish Kingdom, and plays for Gent, De Cat plays in Anderlecht second side, DR Congo descent Wamu Oyatambwe plays for Genk second team as do De Wannemaecker.

Moroccan offspring Amengai plays for Club Brugge second side, as do Angolan descent Jessi da Silva, Noah Fernandez defends PSV and Alvarez Fernandez was loaned out from Genk to Greek team OFI Crete, Bisiwu, another African heir, also plays with Club Brugge second tier, and Murenzi, also with African roots, for Genk second team, alongside Guinean descent Ali Camara, Stian Naert is with Club Brugge and Mitongo plays for Standard Liège, noting clearly in the squad the ancient ownership by the Belgian Kingdom of part of the Congo.

Portugal was one of the first European sides to bring African-born players to their national teams, an habit which is maintained. Currently and alongside being an emmigrant country, the nation became a host for immigrants not only from the former colonies but also from Eastern European nations and Asia. The Eastern arrivals are already seen in all the sports, having several competing in Judo, in handball, in basketball, in volleyball and naturally in football.

The goalies of this squad are Sporting CP’s Tverdohlebov, Algarve-born but with Russian ancestry, and Sporting Braga’s Romário Cunha.

The back line is made up with another Slavic descent, Martim Chelmik of FC Porto, Cape Verdean descent Mauro Furtado of Benfica’s U19, Benfica’s José Neto and Ricardo Neto, Ovar-born but of Arabic descent Dbouk who plays with Sporting Braga and Benfica’s Bissau-Guinean descent Daniel Banjaqui.

The midfield has Rafael Quintas of Benfica’s U19, Santiago Verdi plays for Vitória Guimarães U19, Bernardo Lima for FC Porto’s U19, Zeega is another Vitória Guimarães youth player, Benfica’s U19 Stevan Manuel is of Angolan descent, Gil Neves of Benfica has dual citizenship, holds Portuguese and Luxembourg passport, the same applies to FC Porto’s Yoan Pereira.

Duarte Cunha of FC Porto is one of the wingers, alonside Sporting Braga’s João Aragão, Benfica’s Anísio is of Bissau-Guinean descent and FC Porto’s Mateus Mide is a Oporto-born of Brazilian descent. Tomás Soares plays for Benfica’s U19 and hails from the Portuguese furniture capital Paços de Ferreira.

As can be seen, although only U17 many of these players already have senior experience, namely the French and Belgian ones, showing the real purpose of having a senior second squad.

Curiously and despite having second sides and a senior ‘reserve’ league, Portugal doesn’t have senior minutes in the squad, which is, at the least, awkward. Portugal is also the squad with less clubs represented, only five, also a poor tradition in the Portuguese football pyramid.

Djylian N'Guéssan and Matondo have already played in Ligue 1, which make them naturally prospects for scout and better suits to shine, Lennart Karl from Germany is a forward to keep eye on, Steffanoni is a midfielder who will soon shine at Atalanta's first side, Ryan McAidoo is mandatory and Czech Cizek should also be well observed, as should Portuguese's Mide, Campaniello of Italy and French Boly can also make the list of players to watch even more closely, but always expect surprises, it's what youth football is made of!